Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

The Phantom of the Opera Blu-ray Movie Review

The music of the Nightmare on Elm Street.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 13, 2015

The face (so to speak) of musical theater was forever changed (for better or worse) in 1986, when Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe brought their version of the venerable The Phantom of the Opera to London’s West End, where it became an immediate sensation. By the time the musical opened on Broadway in 1988, it had moved beyond mere “sensation” status to become an increasingly global phenomenon. The overwhelming success of the musical may or may not have played into the 1989 film version of Gaston Leroux’s legendary tale of the deformed and demented Erik and his perhaps (perhaps not?) unwilling muse Christine, but there’s no doubt that the musical’s reach managed to touch at least one aspect of the film. In the closing credits, there’s a disclaimer that this particular Phantom of the Opera has “no connection” with any stage version. One has to wonder if the stage version’s iconic producer Cameron Mackintosh “reached out” himself to make sure that film producer Menahem Golan distanced the movie from the Lloyd Webber property. That said, despite an probably unnecessary framing device that transports part of the story to “present day” (i.e., 1989) Manhattan, this Phantom of the Opera hews relatively closely to Leroux’s original conception, with a couple of notable differences.

A perhaps needless bookending scheme in this The Phantom of the Opera sees “present day” (i.e., 1989) Juilliard student Christine Day (Jill Schoelen) meeting her friend Meg (Molly Shannon) at a gothically dark library in Manhattan. Meg has unearthed what she thinks will be the perfect audition piece for Christine, a remnant from an old opera called Don Juan Triumphant by a so-called “footnote” in music history, a composer named Erik Destler. Unfortunately, Meg has only found a couple of pages of the score, but is certain the rest must be in one of the many piles of dust laden books surrounding them. Wouldn’t you know it, but Christine more or less goes right to what turns out to be Destler’s complete score for the opera, but in a sign that maybe she shouldn’t be considering this as appropriate audition material, she hallucinates that the score is overflowing with blood.

The next day, Christine does at least attempt to audition with the Destler piece, but it’s here that The Phantom of the Opera decides to get back to its roots, at least temporally speaking. An accident with a sandbag on the stage where Christine is singing seems to transport the soprano back to Gaston Leroux’s original late 19th century timeframe. Unlike Leroux’s original formulation, though, the story is now taking place in London rather than Paris, and Christine is an American singer working with a London opera company. She awakens here to another friend named Meg (Emma Rawson) and simply segues into this new identity in one of the film’s unexplained gambits.

At this point the adapted screenplay by Gerry O’Hara and Duke Sandefur actually hews fairly closely to at least the general outlines of Leroux’s original. The horribly disfigured Phantom (Robert Englund) haunts the flies and wings of the opera house while also encouraging Christine through a secret portal in her dressing room. Furthermore, the Phantom makes sure that prima dona Carlotta (Stephanie Lawrence) is “indisposed” for the opera’s current production of Faust, helping Christine to assume the role and become a star.

A certain late eighties ambience is perhaps unavoidable in this iteration of the hoary tale, and so little gross out elements like seeing The Phantom sew on his fake skin are given an up close and personal perspective. There are also some fairly graphic images, including The Phantom slicing and dicing a hapless stagehand and, later, a “not quite dead yet” unfortunate who’s been skinned alive. These Grand Guignol tips of the hat add little to the storyline, but probably provided a bit of gore for those who saw the name Robert Englund and just assumed this would be another A Nightmare on Elm Street. Englund does commendably well in the role, especially considering the fact that screenplay departs from Leroux at some points and gives The Phantom character a perhaps more depraved side than usual.

It’s at this point that some viewers may wonder if they’re watching The Phantom of the Opera or The Silence of the Lambs, but the somewhat unexpected plot turn at least provides a sense of imminent danger that is sometimes lacking from the by now many version of Phantom. The Faustian element of the tale is delivered with a probably too ham handed approach, and even director Dwight H. Little mentions in the commentary included on this Blu-ray that various plot holes had to be spackled over as best as possible with the text crawl prologue, which seeks to explain The Phantom’s supposed immortality (while failing completely to explain Christine’s or more saliently her time travel experiment).

Still, this is frequently a fun and fairly creepy retelling of the classic story. The production is quite lavish, with opulent sets for both the opera house and The Phantom’s candlelit underground lair. Other than Englund, performances are okay if sometimes underwhelming, though old pros like Bill Nighy as the opera manager provide appropriate pomp and (ultimately) terror. Misha Segal’s score is one of this version’s strongest assets. While there are snippets from Gounod’s Faust, Segal provides all of the “Destler” material, and it’s quite arresting.

The Phantom of the Opera Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Phantom of the Opera is presented on Blu-ray by Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. Grain swarms rather heavily over this presentation, to the point that skin textures can look slightly crosshatched in close-ups. There are a few transitory issues with grain management, especially in some of the darker sequences. Colors look nicely lush and well saturated, with reds and blues popping especially well. There's good to very good detail and fine detail in more brightly lit shots especially, where things like fabric textures in costumes and sets can be made out quite clearly. Dark scenes however are often rife with crush, to the point that Schoelen's jet black hair simply becomes part of shadowy backgrounds at various points.

The Phantom of the Opera Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Phantom of the Opera features DTS-HD Master Audio tracks in both 2.0 and 5.1. The 5.1 iteration significantly opens up the musical elements, providing a much wider soundstage for Misha Segal's very enjoyable score. Otherwise, though, there's not a whale of a lot of difference between the two, with both offering good reproduction of dialogue and the occasional sound effect. Fidelity is excellent and there are no issues of any kind to report.

The Phantom of the Opera Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Mask: The Making of The Phantom of the Opera (1080p; 37:43) is another really well done Scream Factory supplement, including great interviews with a number of the principal cast and crew.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:53)


• TV Spot (1080i; 00:31)


• Radio Spots (2:04)


• Still Gallery (1080p; 5:26)


• Audio Commentary with Director Dwight H. Little and Star Robert Englund. This is a really fun, conversational but informative, commentary that bridges a rather wide array of content, including everything from working in Budapest to some of the practical effects.

The Phantom of the Opera Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Some of us who have made at least part of our living in musical theater tend to prefer Maury Yeston's Phantom to the Lloyd Webber piece, no matter what our wives may say. (Sorry if that got weirdly personal for a moment.) Much as musical fans actually have more than one choice for Phantoms, there are a glut of films and television properties that have attempted to dramatize Leroux's iconic tale. This particular one probably tries a bit too hard to inject a needless mythology that includes the kind of silly bookending sequences. On the other hand, once things settle down into Leroux's timeframe if not his locale, there's nice attention to detail, even if ultimately the screenwriters can't resist getting into the kind of shock value that Leroux probably never even imagined for his disfigured anti-hero. This Scream Factory release once again has some very appealing supplements, and technical merits are generally strong. Recommended.